Collaborating with Wyss Academy for Nature in Kenya

Our regreening approach didn’t happen overnight; it’s the result of a long learning process wherein countless individuals and organisations shared their knowledge and wisdom with us. That’s why we never hesitate to support other organisations when it comes to regreening our beautiful planet! Last month, we had a great collaboration with Wyss Academy for Nature. We helped them offer community support to restore degraded rangelands in Naibunga Conservancy, Kenya.

Naibunga Conservancy is located in the Mukogodo Division of Laikipia County and comprises 9 group ranches: Koija, Il Motiok, Tiemamut, Kijabe, Nkiloriti, Musul, Il Polei, Munishoi and Morupusi. These different Maasai group ranches came together in 2004 in order to jointly manage and conserve over 50,000 hectares of rangelands, with tourism being one of the income-generating activities. Naibunga Conservancy falls under the umbrella of the Northern Rangelands Trust. 

We’ve offered Wyss Academy technical support to help select suitable sites for restoration activities. We also helped organise training sessions for communities on the digging of bunds, water retention ditches and the selection of sites for grass seed banks. Next, we gave community training on seeding the bunds. We used two native species for this: Cenchrus ciliaris and Eragrostis superba (quite a mouth full, we know!). We chose to reseed these two species because of their adaptability to arid and semi-arid areas. 

As you can see in this picture, the first results are already visible! The grass sprouted after the soil bunds collected water from the first rains in Naibunga Conservancy.